Apple, EMC lead tech slide; eBay surges

Qualcomm comments weigh raise concerns about iPhone 5 delay

DanGallagher

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Techs stocks fell mostly into the red Thursday afternoon, with Apple Inc. leading the way as concerns rose about a potential delay for the next iPhone model.

Reuters

Apple shares fell Thursday on concerns about a delay for the iPhone 5.

Shares of Apple
AAPL, -0.87%
were down 3% at $587.44 by the closing bell. The drop came a day after Qualcomm told investors that it was dealing with a manufacturing shortage of 28 nanometer chip products, that would weigh down its results a bit for the rest of the fiscal year. Read story on Qualcomm results.

Apple’s prominence in the tech sector weighed on the rest of the group. The Nasdaq Composite Index
COMP, -0.01%
closed off 0.8% at 3,008, while the Morgan Stanley High-Tech Index
MSH, -0.20%
fell 0.4%. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index
SOX, -1.20%
was down by 1% by the close.

Also weighing down the group was EMC Corp.
EMC, +0.41%
down 3.6% by the close. The data storage systems maker reported a 23% rise in first-quarter profit, but posted revenue that fell short of expectations. Read story on EMC's results.

Shares of eBay Inc.
EBAY, -0.88%
soared more than 13% on the company’s upbeat results. The Internet auction site reported a 20% gain in its first-quarter profit. Read about eBay results.

Why Apple's Tim Cook was at Valve

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Tech bloggers are a-froth over a visit Apple CEO Tim Cook paid to gamemaker Valve yesterday, leading to speculation that Apple might be planning a game console, Kill Screen's Jamin Warren reports on digits. Photo: Valve.

Macquarie analyst Ben Schachter upgraded eBay shares, which have risen more than 30% year-to-date, to outperform from neutral.

“EBay is executing,” he said in a note. “We believe that product improvements, solid business management, and strong tailwinds from mobile are driving upside to estimates. We expect that will continue throughout 2012 and beyond.”

Microsoft
MSFT, -0.38%
was down 0.4% ahead of its own quarterly report, due after the closing bell.

Cloud-based software provider Splunk Inc.
SPLK, +1.00%
soared nearly 109% following its IPO. The company priced its shares late Wednesday at $17 — well above the $11-$13 range previously expected. The stock opened trading at $32 and closed at $35.48. Read IPO Report on Splunk.

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